Vocations Night offers young people insight into life of diocesan priests and vowed religious

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Priests and local members of religious orders share a light-hearted moment during the Nov. 19 Vocations Night at St. Mary Catholic Church in West Haven, which was attended by children in the parish's religious education classes, among others.

WEST HAVEN – Being a priest is awesome, Father Stephen Tilley, parochial vicar of St. Joseph Parish, told young people gathered for the annual Vocations Night at St. Mary Parish, “because you find yourself in people’s lives in times when God does awesome things: He either heals them in the Sacrament of Confession, consoles them in the Sacrament of Anointing, unites us together in great joy during marriages, he heals us in our sorrow at funerals – and we get to be a part of that every single time. Priesthood is a very privileged place. And it’s a very humbling place, too, because you realize it’s God that’s doing it. It’s always God. He always puts the right answer in my mouth or just lets me be there to love somebody.”

The Nov. 19 Vocations Night was attended by students in the parish’s religious education classes, among others.

That sentiment was shared, in one way or another, by the members of various religious orders who told the story of their vocations. Despite the differences in age and culture, the women and men who spoke all agreed that God’s plan for them was to serve Him, and following his call gives them happiness.

“It is a most joyful vocation,” said Carmelite Mother Therese Bui, who this month marks the beginning of her 20th year in the Salt Lake monastery. “It has been the most blessed, beautiful 19 years of my life. I would always do it again.”

Many of those who spoke heard God’s call when they were quite young. Benedictine Sister Marilyn Mark grew up in Utah reading stories about the saints in the fifth grade and, after being confirmed, “I felt a presence in my life that I had never felt before,” she said. She went to college and started a teaching career, but “God kept speaking to me in prayer,” she said, so she joined the Sisters of St. Benedict.

On the other hand, Sr. Bertha Owusuaa, a novice-elect with the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross from Ghana, always wanted to be a sister, so after she finished high school she responded to the call and found that she felt at home with the Holy Cross sisters.

People can find no greater love in the world “than doing what God has called you to do,”said Araceli Ramirez, a postulant with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.

However, there are other paths to a religious vocation. Although Fr. Tilley was baptized as a child, he was not raised in the faith, and Dominican Father Augustine Hilander wasn’t baptized until he was 19 years old. After learning about the faith, though, “I saw that I could not live life without being faithful to Jesus,” Fr. Augustine said.

The diaconate also is a rewarding vocation, said Deacon Jack Clark, who was ordained in 2004.

For those who might be wondering if God is calling them, the answer may come in prayer or from friends or family who suggest that path, said Fr. Gustavo Vidal, pastor of St. Mary Parish, who moderated the Vocations Night.  “God will talk to you through people,” he said.